December 2013

01/17/14

This isn’t just any laser show—it’s a mesmerizing fantasy of lights, sounds and movement produced by Lightwire Theater and Corbian Visual Arts (the same company that made it to the semifinals on “America’s Got Talent”).

01/16/14

“American Idol” is full of surprises, the show declares on its web site, and the among the revelations from the two-hour premiere of Season XIII Wednesday night on FOX was the fact that three Connecticut talents won the coveted ticket to Hollywood, and the main competition, in their regional auditions.

01/03/14

The 28-year-old musician—who makes magic on a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin—is so passionate and devoted to the future of classical music that she is happily transitioning from her third appearance at a major classical music mecca like Carnegie Hall to a concert Jan. 11 at a more diminutive venue, the Pequot Library in Southport.

01/01/14

“They are not normally aggressive and have no interest in hunting human beings. It is only when we put ourselves in positions where we are accidentally struck, that so-called shark attacks take place," Scott Tucker says.

12/26/13

At a time when portraiture was considered passé, Close chose the human face as his subject. Or perhaps it chose him. He has a condition called prosopagnosia, which means it is difficult for him to recognize faces.

12/23/13

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” has been called a “tour de force” by The New York Times, and “the most fun you can have on Broadway” by Time Out magazine. Entertainment Weekly said it is as “gut-busting as ‘The Book of Mormon.’”

12/22/13

What if Santa Claus fell asleep on Christmas Eve? Fortunately, in Richard Wolf’s charming holiday tale, an affectionate dog named Mistletoe wakes St. Nick just in time to deliver his sleigh full of presents.

12/16/13

Paul Newman’s legacy of changing the world around him and changing lives for the better is the subject of “Give It All Away: Newman’s Own Recipe for Success,” a new documentary premiering Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m. on CPTV.

12/12/13

“Places like [the Shubert Theater] are important in terms of maintaining a sense of who we are, what we are about, why we are different and why we’re going to be successful,” New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said.

12/06/13

It’s not merely Sirena Huang’s talent and musicality that give these Hartford Symphony concerts heightened appeal—it’s so much more than that, which was revealed during a phone interview with Huang this week.

11/26/13

Roller coasters may be out of season now, and the Haunted Graveyard has also come and gone—but in the spirit of the bright lights and global sports action of its neighbor ESPN, Lake Compounce these days is an attraction for all seasons.

11/24/13

The chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Bayard Rustin was honored posthumously this week at the White House as one of 16 Americans awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

11/22/13

Zetterstrom captured many portraits of Chinese people in a time before globalization and political riots and only three years after the end of Mao’s disastrous Cultural Revolution and the implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s “Open And Reform Policy.”

11/20/13

The Shoreline ArtsTrail is taking place this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23 and 24, when a community of 47 local artists will participate in a 12th annual Open Studios Weekend, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

11/18/13

Much of LeeAnn Rimes’ notoriety comes for all the wrong reasons, and often unfairly, but the visionary folks behind The Ridgefield Playhouse scored the coup of booking her for the gala—and those who attend will get a taste of all the right reasons behind why she is a sensation.

11/16/13

People may not always agree with Malcolm Gladwell, but he makes them think. The mere fact that his insightful observations about life have taken the world by storm might be a sign that there’s still hope for the human race. Next week, on Nov. 21, he joins the conversation at The Connecticut Forum with historian David Brinkley.

11/12/13

It’s safe to say that there won’t be any rioting outside Woolsey Hall at Yale University in New Haven on Nov. 17 at 8 p.m., when the 85-member Zephyrus Project Orchestra pays tribute to the work with its only performance of “RiteNow: A Centennial Celebration of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring.’” Admission is free.

11/11/13

There are some human events so shocking that those who live through them never forget. The moment of discovery is so intense that the circumstances are seared into the memory, as vivid 50 years later as on the day they happened.
Such was the moment on Nov. 22, 1963, when John F. Kennedy was murdered in front of the entire nation while riding in a motorcade down a Dallas street.
It was a day that had featured festive political pageantry and that was imbued with the optimism of a nation experiencing great peace and prosperity. That mood vanished with the muzzle flash from Lee Harvey Oswald’s gun and the nation would never be the same again.
The day is being revisited again on Nov. 22, 2013, at 9 p.m., when NBC airs “Where Were You?” It is narrated by Tom...

11/10/13

Mitch Albom, journalist, author, playwright, radio host, musician and founder of seven charities, brings a wide variety of potential topics to Southern Connecticut State University’s Lyman Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday — one day after the publication date of his latest book, “The First Phone Call From Heaven.”

11/08/13

Michael Medeiros will share a story of his own creation this Sunday when Dickens Books & Art in Bantam commemorates the 166th birthday of “Dracula” author Bram Stoker with an ensemble reading of Mr. Medeiros’ modern-day vampire film screenplay, “Van Helsing of Ipswich.”

10/30/13

There’s a painting in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art that—while depicting a streetscape in Victorian-era Great Britain—evokes the same moment-in-time feeling, and bittersweet autumnal thoughts, that are occasioned by certain streetscapes around Yale at twilight this time of year.
This Friday, at that moment in time in New Haven, an opening reception will be held at a different venue, Reynolds Fine Art, for a very different series of works—but works that share one commonality with the John Atkinson Grimshaw painting, “Evening Glow,” from 1884. (The YCBA is open until 5 p.m. Friday, so why not pay a visit before moving on to the Ninth Square events referenced below? Left: John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1836-1893, British,...

10/27/13

Hartford Stage Company is presenting two plays in repertory this fall, La Dispute and Macbeth, and for one cast member, teenager Eric Murphy, the idea of repertory means juggling not two plays but theater, school and more. Amid the run of Macbeth, which is getting strong reviews, the Farmington Valley Times caught up with Murphy.

10/22/13

University art museums, like much of academia, purposefully enjoy freedoms that are more elusive in the “real” world, the place where art meets up with commerce, often yielding as a result exhibits that are long on (hoped-for) appeal to the masses and shorter on the exploration of ideas, intellectual curiosity—and the kind of sustenance that encourages growth.

10/20/13

The book, “Silent Night,” that Helen Brann agreed to write is on the market just in time for Christmas. While other Spenser and Jesse Stone novels have since been assigned to other writers, Brann’s book contains the last chapters written by the master storyteller,

10/19/13

While awaiting the major motion picture of her novel "The Good House," the New Milford author makes several local appearances to promote the paperback (we hope she throws in some banjo on the side). And yes, there's another novel on the way.

10/13/13

Nicole Frechette might not be a coal miner’s daughter. But Nashville has still taken notice. As has Billboard Magazine.
True, in her Shoreline childhood home, the radio did not play an endless loop of Grand Ole Opry broadcasts. At the dinner table, no one retold Minnie Pearl jokes. The 28-year-old, whose band will headline the Harvest Music Hoedown at Clinton’s Chamard Vineyards Sunday, did not address her parents as Mama and Daddy.
Indeed, aside from an aunt she never knew and a grandmother who plays the organ and belts out songs “at the top of her lungs,” the striking blonde said at a recent interview, no one in her family is musical in any capacity.
And yet there was Nikki Fresh, as her friends call her, singing since she could speak, singing...

10/10/13

The Hartford Symphony Orchestra opens its 70th anniversary season Friday night with a concert that will be bookended by different aspects of a festive food-and-drinks-oriented celebration and features Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony,” Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Pipa with guest artist Wu Man, and Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, with the Connecticut Youth Symphony onstage with the HSO. The performance will be repeated Saturday night.
“The 70th Opening Night concerts celebrate the Hartford Symphony’s dedication to artistic excellence, community engagement and creating harmony in Hartford,” HSO President & CEO Carrie Hammond said about performances that will be led by HSO music director Carolyn Kuan. “From cultural...

10/09/13

Holly Holden is an estimable force in the world of interior design. Through her firm, Holly Holden & Company, Ltd., the ASID Allied Member from Farmington serves clients across the U.S. and internationally, bringing them a graceful, genteel style that bespeaks timless understatement—rooms that feel comfortable even as they anchored by a formal gravity. And then, too, there’s a sense of ebullience, in classical mode, given that Holden’s favorite color is pink.